Insight from a man who actually lives in Louisiana and who doesnt kiss up to Dear Leader...

Mike: So I was not around on Friday when our supreme allied oil commander-in-chief made his vaunted appearance, the messianic appearance down on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. You know, even the local TV stations, or at least one of them, picked up on this, that if you saw the photo op setup for Obama’s appearance on the beach at Grand Isle, Louisiana, if you saw it with a wide-angle lens, you saw all the White House’s miniature versions of Annie Lebowitz there. No no no no. No, there’s a seashell in the way. Oh, no, he needs to move to the right. No, there’s a rig out there in the background. It doesn’t look right. What an absolute scam. But Obama was on the job

You know what’s the amazing thing about this, and for the first four days that I was out I tried to stay away from the news. So I’ll just confess to you that, other than my friends calling me and demanding that I turn the TV on Friday, and demanding that I go on the air on Saturday and denounce the President’s appearance here as nothing more than a press conference photo op that did nothing to stop the flow of oil – as a matter of fact it seems – now, this is an amazing thing, absolutely amazing. The worst television network out there is OMSNBC. Now, the only reason that they’re the worst is because the Clinton News Network, CNN, actually spends more money on talent. They actually spend more money trying to fake that they’re not the worst. And this is how this is being perceived down here in Southeast Louisiana at oil spill central.

And I keep hearing this from friends; I see it on television; I hear it on the radio around here. And they say, why, look at what CNN’s done. Where’s Fox News? Why aren’t they down? Why aren’t they here covering this? People are upset that Fox News has not sent its entire news team to the beaches of Grand Isle so that they can demagogue this thing and give it coverage. And so the Clinton News Network has revived its fortunes a little bit. Now, the worst thing that can happen for CNN right now is for this latest operation of BP to stop the spill, is for it to actually work. If that were to happen, well, that would be absolutely damaging to CNN. There’s no one that is cheerleading this more than the Clinton News Network right now. Believe me, folks, in the newsrooms at CNN they are sitting there waiting with bated breath, I mean, their future relies, their future lies on the failure, or is reliant on the failure of BP to cap the leak.

So how amazing is this? Today is Wednesday, June the 2nd. I haven’t been here for five days, six days. And in the six days that I was gone, little has changed. And I’m going to reiterate something to you again that we talked about all last week. And it seems like I’m the only little voice of reason out here crying in the wilderness. “Mike, what are you going to reiterate?” Well, it’s very simple. Government has demonstrated, especially the federal government, has demonstrated the outright utter absurdity that it can effectively manage anything beyond a few specific enumerated powers that it ought to be carrying out. Certainly not oil spill control. Now, they’re good at damage control. They’re in damage control mode. But they are not good at oil spill control. I mean, it is absolute folly to rely on them. It just – when does the rest of the republic, when do the rest of the people come around to the realization that there are very few things that any governing body actually does correctly?

Here’s what they do right. They can run a money printing press correctly. We know they can do that. They can start wars, and they can kill people all around the globe, 365 days out of the year. They can do that. They can build one hell of a nuclear device which can destroy people that the previous wars did not get to, should they be used. They can do that. They can run a decent court system and lock people away for making individual choices in their lives. They can do that. They can run a prison system. They can do that. Let’s see. They can’t do the border. Can’t write rules for naturalization and immigration. They fail to do that. Can’t enforce the rules that they have already written. And now we believe that Attorney General Eric Holder showing up here on the beaches of Grand Isle with a couple satchels full of subpoenas and legal papers, if we just stuff that into the mouth of the Deep Horizon oil spill, that will clean – that will stop the leak. How ridiculous is this?

[Mimicking President Obama] “Now, let me assure the American people that we will bring to justice those that are responsible for this.” Here, let’s bring some of the people that are responsible for this. How about the government bureaucrats that helped craft the rules that allowed this thing to take place in the first place? How about this? How about finding out which airhead bureaucrat or which airhead senator or congressman’s idea it was to stop issuing – it might have been a bureau chief – to stop issuing permits to drill in shallow water, forcing companies like British Petroleum to get off the land and to invent new and more better ways to go and drill out in the middle of the damn Gulf of Mexico in one mile of water? How about that? Why don’t we find out who that person was? Seems to me that much of this anger is directed in the wrong direction, or is being put out there in the wrong direction. What I mean by that is the idea that government works, and this is why people are upset. Welcome to our nightmare, ladies and gentlemen. Just wait till they get a hold of your healthcare.

How many, I wonder how many lawsuits it – this is like the old joke, how many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb? How many lawyers does it take to fill the Deep Horizon oil spill up, to plug it up? [Mimicking President Obama] “Plug the damn hole. Get in there and plug up the damn hole.” Oh, we have lots of other news. Oh, this is a great one. Now, 10 days ago I reported to you right here on this program that actor Kevin Costner had an idea, as a matter of fact he patented the damn thing. It’s a ship that goes out into bodies of water like, oh, I don’t know, the Gulf of Mexico maybe, and this ship looks for these things called, oh, I think they’re called oil spills. And when the ship that Kevin Costner runs and invested his money into finds said oil spill, it – here comes a – now give me a drum roll. It sucks the oil in the water out of the Gulf at the same time onto the ship.

Now, bear with me here. This is really complicated stuff. I don’t expect any bureaucrats to get this. I certainly don’t expect any members of Congress to get it. And I know the President isn’t going to get it. Otherwise we’d have 50 supertankers out there doing this right now. They pump the oil and water mixture onto the ship. And this oil and water separator gizmo device separates the oil from the water, takes the oil portion of it, and pumps it into what’s called a storage tank. I mean, this is, folks, this is high tech, never before done on American or international waters stuff before. And then it takes the water that it has separated from the oil; and it, why, it pumps it back out into the Gulf. What a fantastic idea. Hey, does anyone know where there may be a giant oil spill where we can try this out?

Silence from the Obama administration. Silence from the Minerals and Management Service. Silence from the Environmental Protection Agency. Silence – hey, maybe Eric Holder knows. Boy, this Eric Holder guy has been busy while I’ve been on vacation, too. He’s overseas – let’s see here. He’s suing Arizona. He’s suing BP. He’s going to clean up the Gulf. He’s going to clean up the border of Arizona. And then he’s overseas, and now he’ll have to sue someone in Israel for the flotilla incident yesterday.

All I can say is that Mike Church is right on the money, and says what needs to be said.....he tells it like it is and doesnt give a damn what chairman Mau has to say!
Bring it on Mike, bring it on...

FACT CHECK: Health insurer profits not so fat as obama wishes for you to believe!

In not so many words:
OBAMA IS A LIAR PLAIN AND SIMPLE!

Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry.

In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up."

Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.

Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of some of the largest insurers were downgraded to negative from stable heading into this year, as investors were warned of a stagnant if not shrinking market for private plans.

Insurers are an expedient target for leaders who want a government-run plan in the marketplace. Such a public option would force private insurers to trim profits and restrain premiums to compete, the argument goes. This would "keep insurance companies honest," says President Barack Obama.

The debate is loaded with intimations that insurers are less than straight, when they are not flatly accused of malfeasance.

They may not have helped their case by commissioning a report that looked primarily at the elements of health care legislation that might drive consumer costs up while ignoring elements aimed at bringing costs down. Few in the debate seem interested in a true balance sheet.

But in pillorying insurers over profits, the critics are on shaky ground. A look at some claims, and the numbers:

THE CLAIMS

--"I'm very pleased that (Democratic leaders) will be talking, too, about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who also welcomed the attention being drawn to insurers' "obscene profits."

--"Keeping the status quo may be what the insurance industry wants their premiums have more than doubled in the last decade and their profits have skyrocketed." Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, member of the Democratic leadership.

--"Health insurance companies are willing to let the bodies pile up as long as their profits are safe." A MoveOn.org ad.

THE NUMBERS:

Health insurers posted a 2.2 percent profit margin last year, placing them 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries. As is typical, other health sectors did much better -- drugs and medical products and services were both in the top 10.

The railroads brought in a 12.6 percent profit margin. Leading the list: network and other communications equipment, at 20.4 percent.

HealthSpring, the best performer in the health insurance industry, posted 5.4 percent. That's a less profitable margin than was achieved by the makers of Tupperware, Clorox bleach and Molson and Coors beers.

The star among the health insurance companies did, however, nose out Jack in the Box restaurants, which only achieved a 4 percent margin.

UnitedHealth Group, reporting third quarter results last week, saw fortunes improve. It managed a 5 percent profit margin on an 8 percent growth in revenue.

Van Hollen is right that premiums have more than doubled in a decade, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study that found a 131 percent increase.

But were the Bush years golden ones for health insurers?

Not judging by profit margins, profit growth or returns to shareholders. The industry's overall profits grew only 8.8 percent from 2003 to 2008, and its margins year to year, from 2005 forward, never cracked 8 percent.

The latest annual profit margins of a selection of products, services and industries: Tupperware Brands, 7.5 percent; Yahoo, 5.9 percent; Hershey, 6.1 percent; Clorox, 8.7 percent; Molson Coors Brewing, 8.1 percent; construction and farm machinery, 5 percent; Yum Brands (think KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), 8.5 percent.

Thanks to CALVIN WOODWARD and Associated Press writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis....